Money deals: Household bills

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20 February 2013: HUGE Switch returns!

In May we ran our first Huge Switch and secured savings of over £1.5 million for 8,750 switchers. Average savings per switch were £176 + £45 cashback on top. We even got support from the Government! Huge Switch is now back as HUGE Switch 2 and we are aiming to get the UK’s cheapest tariffs + £50-£100 cashback this time.

HUGE Switch 2 is a collective switching scheme. The basic idea is lots of people register interest. We tell suppliers how many people have registered. They say "Wow! we’d like to offer that big group a special deal." At the same time we convince people here to sacrifice our commissions too for the big group. The result; everyone gets super special deals with cashback from us and suppliers for 2 weeks only. Registration takes place until March 12th. We just need your current supplier and spend details and your preferences for a future tariff. From March 12th – 25th you’ll be able to switch to the special deals.

Here's how the Huge Switch works

With the Huge Switch we intend to allow consumers a chance to take part in the collective bargaining process, whilst still enabling them to see what they could save by switching to a new supplier immediately. Customers will be given an opportunity at each step of the process to see what the current best deals on the market are, and can choose to switch immediately to an available tariff at any time.

Commenting on the initiative, energyhelpline.com Director Mark Todd said, “For The HUGE Switch 2 we are hoping to get even bigger cashbacks against the UK’s cheapest tariffs. Last time we managed to get up to £50 - much more than our competitor’s collective switching schemes. This time I am targeting £50-£100 cashback against the UK’s cheapest tariffs.

Our Huge Switch could not come at a better time for consumers. Bitter winter-weather and last year’s price rises have pushed average bills to over £1,400 a year. With The HUGE Switch 2 we are putting people-power to practical use and showing energy companies that if they offer great deals we’ll find them huge numbers of new customers. The more people who get behind it, the bigger our bargaining strength, and the more huge the savings.”

“We’ll make it clear throughout which is their better option, and that’s something we can do because we have the best price comparison calculator on the market, as recognised by Consumer Focus.

“At present, 60% of UK households have never switched supplier and have missed out on hundreds of pounds of savings as a result. We hope that collective bargaining initiatives such as ours will help to trigger people into making a change for the better.

The HUGE Switch 2 will be open to all British* bill-payers for registration from February 19th – March 11th using a simple online form.

On behalf of Huge Switch participants, energyhelpline will negotiate with UK suppliers for three weeks.

Once the registration period is over, everyone will be able to switch to the special deals from March 12th – March 25th.

Those wishing to register for the Huge Switch should visit www.hugeswitch.com where they will find full details of the scheme.